Inspired by this thread and the fact that it would be the right kind of thread for a Friday.
Here is a place to share those littel mistakes that show up on radio, TV or in print that gave you a good laugh.
Here are mine:
Item one:
Way back when (early 70s) on channel 50 in Detroit there was, I think it was a carpet outlet, that had a TV comerical on at least once an hour. I featured that old too bright, too enthusiastic voice that you often hear on adds for Monster Truck shows. The comercial starts with this voice anouncing, “WE GOOFED! WE OVERBOUGHT!” At this same time the original Star Trek series was running on this channel every night at 7:00. I was an avid watcher. Many Star Trek episodes have a formula that just before the half hour comecial break there is a climax in the story. On this night the half hour was approaching and the the ship was shown to be it some great danger. Sulu was asked for a report by Kirk and . . . just then the sound only of this comercial played breifly over the video. My sister came into the room to see what was wrong with me.
Item two:
I lived for several years in Wyoming. One feature of living there is the 6:00 AM farm report on the radio. We were up listening one morning and recognised that the announcer was someone new. We sat and listened the the prices for bulls and swine and poultry. Then the anouncer began giving the current maket prices for “ee-wees” (ewes - female sheep). He had to use the words 8 - 10 times in the report pronouncing it “ee-wees” every time.
This may be minor and insignificant but, in Brian Lumley’s Deadspawn (not positive it was this book, but its close), the word “should” was spelled “9hould”. How does something like that happen, don’t people check those things?
How about not amuse but annoy.Comercials which mispronounce road or city names.
Nearby there is a city called Maumee.It is pronounced Maw-Mee. Recently I heard a radio spot that pronounced it Mow-Mee. As if a certain Chaiman had moved in.
The spot was probly made out of town, hence the mistake.This leads to a few Questions. Why didn’t someone get the proper pronunciation to the voice people? and How did the sponsor let it get passed? I know if I just spent a few bucks on a radio spot I’m going to run, I sure wouldn’t run one with such a mistake. And as a comsumer I’m not seeing myself going to a place that lets such details slip.
Another grocery store typo: Cock Full o’Nuts coffee.
I was about 10 when I spotted this and pointed it out to my parents, who got a great laugh out of it and reported it to the store manager.
On a 21 Jump Street episode, someone mentioned they grew up in “mun ACH ee” New Jersey. If they grew up there, they should know it’s pronounced “MOON auk ee.” (spelled Moonachie).
J. Lo’s ‘blow-job’ from that poor sap at FoxNews, natch.
A few summers back, the Buy-Low up by my place had a nice printed sign on a bin of watermelons that said “Sinsemilla – 15¢ / Lb.” Technically accurate, I’m sure, but it didn’t stay up very long. Decorating some slacker student’s apartment, no doubt.
More years ago than I like to recall I was on Okinawa, watching the evening news on AFRTS. They had a Marine corporal reading a story about how the U.S. was renouncing germ warfare. He was doing fine until he came upon the word ‘organism.’ He hesitated and came out with ‘orgasm.’ After that his brain was set, so there were several more references to ‘orgasms’ and ‘microorgasms’ in the rest of the story. I couldn’t keep count 'cause I was too busy laughing.
A couple days later I bumped into a gunny sergeant I knew who also worked at the station. “So, what’d you do with corporal <no-name> and his microorgasms?” I asked.
He just smiled. "We used to have a trophy for the worst on-air gaffe. Someone took an old microphone, beat on it with a hammer, painted gold, and mounted it on a plaque. It was the “Ted Baxter Battered Microphone Award” and would be awarded for the week. . . We gave it to the corporal permanently.
My personal favourite was in an article about a local Catholic priest, Father Fagan. The article repeatedly referred to Father Pagan.
I’m too young to remember it, but my parents still sometimes talk about the anchor on the 6 o’clock news talking about the assassination attempt on President Reagan 9 months into his pregnancy!
This one is even funnier for a witch. On a slightly different note, when I go to coven meeting my mother just can’t seem to pronounce it right and talks about me going to convent all the time.
Was reading a Spanish news article once in class (as an assignment) about a couple of people infected with SARS. It mentioned a woman who was in the 15th month of pregnancy.
Usually they do, and it’s rare that something like this gets by. However, there’s a good chance that this was computer typeset and a glitch in the data made the change after it was proofed.
In an episode of “Space: 1999,” Commander Koenig’s name was spelled Keonig on a label on some equipment.
In on of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ “John Carter” series, there is a line “In the name of the ninth day.” That’s possibly a typo, and possibly should have been “ninth ray.” It’s been a long time, but I recall that the “Martian spectrum” contained nine colors, but two of them had no name in English. I don’t recall any references to Martian “days” where the number nine had any relevance.